Soul of Darkness, Soul of Light
by Redaeth
Summary: Something horrible happens to Lina...
1. Rebirth of Light and of Darkness

Lina Inverse, the Dra Matta, Bandit Killer, Dragon Spooker, Enemy of All Who Live, God Slayer, Flat-Chested Terror, lay in a tiny camp seven days away from Sailloon, dying from fever.  
  
It had struck two days ago while they headed towards Zephilia because her sister, Luna, had summoned them, Lina had begun to appear flushed and listless, but put off any worries of her companions by telling them she was feeling perfectly fine.  
  
Merely hours after she had begun to show symptoms she had collapsed boneless onto the road, unconscious, for the next few hours she swam in and out of wakefulness until she closed her eyes for the final time.  
  
Every effort of Amelia's had met with no success, in fact it seemed to worsen the fever.   
  
Even Xellos was grim and everyone was growing increasingly desperate as they tried to save her.   
  
Now her breaths were ragged and you could feel the heat radiating off of her. They had settled in to wait for her to get better on her own, praying that she would be all right.  
  
It was Zelgadis's watch when she seemed to turn for the worse and he called the rest of the gang in. Everyone except Xellos rushed in and began to try and lessen the fever once more. Lina began to breath in sharp, brief gasps, her face contorting in agony. Finally she let out a long, staggered breath, then her breathing stopped.  
  
Zelgadis frantically tried to revive her and for once his stern mask was broken when he realized the one who had accepted him from the beginning despite his monstrous visage and his betrayal, was gone.  
  
While the Chimera lay weeping a glimmer of black and purple was seen as the Trickster Priest pocketed a dark stone with a bright dancing light trapped in the center into his satchel, he then gave a secretive smile and disappeared to report the fact that Lina Inverse was dead.  
  
****  
  
A month later the news was spread around the world.   
  
Reactions were varied from the bandits she preyed on, who gave shouts of joy and relief on the fact that the infamous Bandit Killer was gone.  
  
People who's homes she had destroyed also felt a sense of relief, they would no longer have to fear a return from the Enemy of All Who Live.  
  
Her friends and companions, those that knew her the best mourned her for a long time, the Chimera, Zelgadis settled into a deep depression with each failed cure, though he never gave up in his long search.  
  
The swordsman wandered back to Sairaag and began to protect the Shrine Maiden Sylphiel, swearing in Lina's and Cepheid's names that he would never let her down.   
  
As for the princess she began to fervently take her duties as heir seriously and buried herself into work to assuage her grief of her friend and mentor. Under her eventual reign the kingdom of Sailoon became even more prosperous and several people likened her to the founders of the capital.  
  
As for Xellos, he kept his thoughts to himself, running his errands without his usal Trickster nature, his nature almost resembled the Chimera in brooding capacity until one day, a year after her death he came across something in one of Rezo's abandoned labratories.  
  
****  
  
Within a room on Wolf Pack Island stood a gigantic crystal that those that studied the creation of Chimera's would have instantly recognized the Crystal of Recreation. It was a light blue and seemed to shimmer every once in a while, slowly revolving, suspended in a column of darkness.  
  
A man recognizable as Xellos emerged from the darkness and stepped closer to the crystal as he reached into his satchel and extracted a tied lock of orange-red hair. Taking one such hair her he charged it with black energy, causing it to stand straight, touching one end to the crystal.  
  
The crystal seemed to ripple like a still pond of water and it began to draw the hair into itself. Releasing the hair he watched as the hair floated to the center. Pocketing the lock he watched for what happened next.  
  
A bright light began to gather around the hair, invisible to the naked eye at first and growing in intensity. Once the light brightened to unbearable levels and then vanished there was a tiny unmoving fetus in place of the hair. Xellos gave a genuine smile as he extracted the darkened stone his satchel and stared at the tiny dancing light trapped in it for several moments before placing it on a shelf nearby.  
  
Then with a flicker of darkness Xellos disappeared from the room.  
  
****  
  
It is several years later, the crystal now holds a small girl, no more then two or three years old. Xellos is seen sitting nearby, once again staring at the stone, watching the light dance within its depths. Once in a while he glances down at a tome in front of him.  
  
He glances at the body that floats in the Crystal and nods once, lifting his hand, dark tendrils of negative energy begins to creep between his hand and the crystal, passing effortlessly through the crystal and began to dance across the girls body like electricity.   
  
After several hours of this he lowers his hand and waits.  
  
Suddenly after what seems like eternity a heartbeat is heard. Xellos smiles at this and waits some more until it repeats again an hour later, after three more repetitions his grins widens and he disappears once more.  
  
****  
  
The girl is now around eleven. Her orange red hair floats around her slender frame like fire and anyone seeing her would think her a spirit of that element.  
  
Xellos returns and he seems almost anxious, gripped in one hand is a rough stone, easily recognizable as the Philosophizer's Stone, thought lost with Shabringdu's rebirth nearly fourteen years earlier. He lets the stone drift out of his hand and then surrounds it with a globe of dark energy and he sends the globe with the stone inside it into the Crystal.  
  
As it nears the girl, her chest, just below her breasts, begins to ripple and then slowly begins to open, bloodlessly exposing her insides.  
  
Once the stone and the globe of darkness rests in the center of her being tendrils of darkness seem to shoot out at the flesh surrounding it. The stone is slowly covered with flesh as she heals and once again the girls chest is sealed, except for a tiny scar.  
  
Xellos studies the girl thoroughly and nods before again disappearing.  
  
Slowly the girls eyes opens, bright ruby red, blank and soulless, the irises seem to fluctuate between the slit irises of a Mazoku and the normal irises of a human. Her head slowly turns and her gaze rests on the stone, as if in response to the girls gaze the light in the stone brightens briefly. The girl raises one hand towards the stone before closing her eyes and returning her hand and arm to their original position.  
  
****  
  
It is six years later when Xellos return's, he picks up the darkened stone and caresses it. Gently, almost reverently he lays the stone against the Crystal of Recreation and watches as her chest once again opens, he frowns at the tendrils of darkness twining and merging with the flesh that holds the Stone in place.  
  
Gesturing with his hand he tries to dispel the darkness and when he fails his frown increases. After several attempts he gives up.  
  
Sighing he directed his attention back to the darkened stone and watched as the darkness surrounding the light dispelled into mist and the light began to try to escape its prison. As the light failed to escape it slowly merged into the Philosophizer's Stone.  
  
Tendrils of light began to interlace itself up the flesh and darkness the joined the Stone to the body and once again the flesh surrounding it closed. The body of the girl begins to glow with the same bright light, though darkness sometimes boils up to the surface.  
  
Still frowning at the darkness Xellos gestured again and the body began to drift away from the center of the Crystal, towards him. Once again the Crystal ripples like water as the girls body slowly emerges, once completely out of the crystal she falls into the waiting arms of the Priest.  
  
Touching her forehead gently as the girl began to breath and her eyelids began to flutter open he whispered 'Sleep!'   
  
After checking all the vitals on the girl he gets up and grabs a bundle of clothing. Unrolling it he reveals a cape with shoulder guards, tight pants, gloves, boots, and a yellow top.   
  
Slowly and gently he begins to dress the girl, every movement careful and precise. Once she was fully dressed he stops and fingers the Demon-Blood stones on his wrist then shakes his head at the thought of keeping them.  
  
He attaches them to the girls wrists and looks at her and smiles, she is clearly recognizable as Lina Inverse, though her hair reaches done to her knees now. He grins at the effect long hair produces and decides to leave it that way instead of restoring it to the length she had twelve years before.  
  
Finished he picks her up and places her on his back in a piggyback ride and with a flicker of darkness they disappear.  
  
****  
  
In Sairaag, underneath the Ancient Tree of Flagoon there is a tradition that takes place once a year on the anniversary of Lina Inverse's death. It started out when Gourry and Sylphiel invited the princess Amelia to a nearby inn where they Slayers had stayed when they visited Sairaag with Lina. To the surprise of all Zelgadis was there too.  
  
The four spent the entire day reminiscing about the adventures they shared together.  
  
The next year saw the same people again at the same inn, this time Filia showed up with a tiny infant dragon in her arms, it seemed Zelgadis had told her of their planned meeting and she had agreed to join them before he headed farther north.  
  
The following year saw Gourry and Sylphiel married and had the common people of the city elect her and him as the ruling family. At the end of their reunion Sylphiel declared that the day of Lina Inverse's death would be a national holiday for her saving the world four times.  
  
Xellos joined them the fourth year and ever since the entire gang would meet there. The day for the celebration was tomorrow and the companion's on Lina Inverse were gathering.  
  
Xellos's reserved room was empty and locked, this inn was always booked solid because of famous people who visited there, it wasn't everyday you saw a Chimera and a demon bash one another, or a dragon in human form with a young green-haired boy who was also the last Ancient Dragon.  
  
The three most sought after faces were the Queen's Amelia and Sylphiel and King Gourry.   
  
The empty rooms that awaited the group of strange people began to slowly fill as each arrived, first was Zelgadis who was accepted in this place and wasn't shunned unlike anywhere else.  
  
Filia and Valtiera were next to arrive, each had a separate room this time as Valteria looked to be fifteen years old.  
  
The royal family of Sairaag had three joining rooms where they and their four children would sleep, it was a treat for their children to get away from the stuffy confines of the Palace.  
  
Amelia was last, alone as always, she had never gotten married despite pressure from her counsellers, though she and Zelgadis did seem closer every year, it was rumored during the slow winter months at Sailoon Zelgadis and Amelia would go on a quest for a cure.  
  
The final person to arrive was Xellos, and he didn't arrive through the front doors like he normally did to annoy the gatherer's, instead he appeared directly in his room with the sleeping Lina on his back. After gently setting her down he gently set the sleep spell to unravel, knowing it would take all night to completely wear off. 


	2. Awakenings and Lost Memories

Lina sat up slowly, her mind felt fuzzy and unfocused, like she had been asleep for a long, long time. Slowly she stood and approached the small mirror hanging by the window.  
  
She lifted her hand to trace the unfamiliar features in the mirror and then touched her face.  
  
Her brow wrinkled in confusion she turned to the window and flung it open, only too see the massive tree of Flagoon spreading it's branches high across the city. "Where am I?"  
  
Once again looking at the mirror she studied the face before her intently; noting the unusual colored hair, the delicate looking skin, the small nose and mouth, the strange and vaguely disturbing red eyes.  
  
"Who am I?" She whispered to the mirror on the wall before sweeping the small room with her eyes, finally settling on the door.  
  
Crossing the room she unlatched the simple lock on the door and sung it open, revealing an empty hallway. Three doors across from her with simple wooden numbers on them revealed this to be an inn. Completely unsettled by her lack of memories she turned left, then right before spotting the stairway leading down.  
  
"Maybe someone down there knows who I am." She muttered before heading in that direction and down the stairs.  
  
Upon reaching the bottom of the stairs she cocked her head at the sound of laughter and celebration before heading in the direction that the noise came from.  
  
Pausing at the open doorway to the filled room her eyes slowly looked over the faces gathered there, finally settling on a large group near the kitchen.   
  
The most noticeable person there had long blond hair streaked with gray, lively blue eyes danced with merriment as he ate with gusto. Though he was slightly familiar, only the eyes and the manner in which he ate struck any chord of remembrance in her.  
  
Next to him was a stately looking woman with long black hair; her peaceful gaze was slightly amused as she occasionally glanced at the man eating beside her. On the opposite side of the table were three young boys, approximately a year apart. Each of them resembled the man and the woman to varying degrees.  
  
Next to the couple sat a woman whose long blond hair was set in a ponytail and framed a regal looking face, her robes indicated her too be a priestess of some sort. Older eyes offset her youthful face, though there was a spark of immaturity lurking in those blue eyes, offset by the glances she threw at the young boy across from her.  
  
The boy caused Lina to feel a spark of wariness, and a flash of memory hit her, the boy's face, though older and with a horn on his forehead. The vision's face had hatred written all over it as he stared at her in her memory. As quickly as the vision had come it fled, leaving her with a sense of a great wrong done.  
  
Next to the blond woman sat a cheerful looking woman with hair in a short bob cut, sunny brown eyes danced as she talked to her companions.  
  
A flash of the same woman though younger, much younger, having that same expression on her face well she preached to a cringing man, the man's features were indistinct but the staff he carried was not.  
  
Lina shook off her vision and slowly made her way too the table, still studying the people there, the last memory had convinced her that she knew them.  
  
Her gaze settled on final figure at the table, a man beside the cheerful woman, though his skin color was strange a dark blue and stones were scattered across his face. Though a lot more subdued then his companion a slight smile was on his face as he leaned over to talk to the woman at his side  
  
The man was exactly the way a flashback showed, though nothing else was remembered about the people there. Stopping short, unsure on what to do she studied the group once more.  
  
Maybe she'd just go to them and ask them if they knew her, maybe that wouldn't seem too strange.  
  
Yes, that's she'd do, smiling slightly she edged her way around towards the stone-like man, the memory of him was the clearest and since he sat on the edge of the table he was also the most accessible.  
  
****  
  
"Do I know you?" Zelgadis heard a female voice ask beside him and saw Amelia's eyes look at the voice.   
  
The look of complete shock on Amelia's face caused Zelgadis too turn around and what he saw caused his jaw to drop in silent shock.  
  
He saw the familiar form of Lina Inverse, right down to the Demon's Blood talismans on her throat, waist and wrists.  
  
Which was impossible… they had buried those artifacts along with her body eighteen years ago and the Knight of Cepheid herself had sealed the grave, it would take a very powerful being to take those talismans.  
  
Zelgadis and Amelia's sudden silence caused Filia to look up and cry out.  
  
"LINA-SAN?!?"  
  
Her startled shriek silenced the inn and drew everyone's attention to the young woman standing beside their table.  
  
Slightly uncomfortable by the weight of the stares everyone was giving her, especially the adults at the table she was beside she shifted slightly before speaking again. "Lina? Is that my name?"  
  
Zelgadis, after having recovered narrowed his eyes. "What do you mean is that your name? You don't know your own name?" The rest of the group paused at this from where they were going to demand answers.  
  
Lina shook her head and the rest of the group began to recover from Filia's cry.  
  
"Sit down." Zelgadis gestured to the chair and waited for her to do so. He nodded then continued to speak. "Do you remember anything at all?"  
  
Lina shook her head and spoke slowly. "No, just that you looked familiar, I couldn't say why, in fact all of you look familiar, except for the boys." She gestured towards Gourry and Sylphiel's sons diagonally across from them.  
  
Zelgadis nodded then connected this girl with the one thing that had been bugging him slightly all day, Xellos hadn't shown, not even to harass him with rumors of another cure. That tripped off alarm bells in his mind.  
  
Zelgadis slowly scanned the inn with all his senses finely attuned to locating Xellos's unique astral presence.   
  
He located him, posing as one of the waitresses, her eyes were on the girl, frowning slightly, Zelgadis shivered, this was bad, Xellos almost never opened his eyes and the only time he wasn't acting like a goofball was when he was serious about something.  
  
Xellos was never serious he had even joked around when Gaav had nearly killed him.  
  
He watched as Xellos's eyes met him and the waitress's body shimmered to reveal the priests normal form. Xellos began to approach, his eyes back on the sitting girl who was watching Zelgadis.  
  
"Well?" Lina poked Zelgadis, causing him to jump slightly. "What?" He said, looking at her.  
  
"Help me figure out who I am." Lina demanded.  
  
"Does Lina Inverse sound at all familiar to you?" Zelgadis asked, frowning slightly, there were many ways to copy a person. Xellos probably had something to do with this.  
  
"Sorta."  
  
Suddenly Lina clutched her head as a vision struck her.  
  
She was facing a group of men and her voice rang out, challengingly, cockily. "I'm Lina Inverse."  
  
The men began to struggle backwards, one of them crying out a warning to his companions. "It's the Bandit Killer, the Flat-Chested Terror! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!"  
  
FIREBALL!  
  
The vision left her and Lina shook her head looking at Zelgadis. "I am Lina… Inverse? The… bandit killer?" She asked slowly.  
  
"What did you just remember?" Zelgadis asked, keeping one eye on the now smiling priest.  
  
"Some men were scared and called me some names, I called out FIREBALL and they blew up."  
  
Zelgadis smiled slightly in remembrance nodded. "Lina Inverse did blow up bandits, I suspect you're a copy of her, someone or something decided to make you."  
  
"I'm a… copy?"  
  
Zelgadis nodded. "The real Lina Inverse died eighteen years ago of fever, I suspect the person is just trying to play a sick joke on us, we all were her friends and miss her dearly."  
  
"I beg to differ Zel-kun, she isn't a copy, more like… a reincarnation of lovely Lina-chan, though I wonder why she doesn't have all her memories."  
  
Zelgadis glared at the priest. "What do you mean by that Xellos?"  
  
"Sore wa himitsu desu!"  
  
Lina leaped up and grabbed the cheerful man who had appeared directly behind her. "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT!" She screamed at Xellos, causing him to cower.  
  
"Ah… Ah… Ah… Lina-chan that hurts!"  
  
"It'll do a lot more then just hurt unless you tell me what the hell is going on!"  
  
"Sore wa himitsu desu!" He said happy once again.  
  
"I might remember much but I do remember this!" Lina growled.  
  
FIREBALL!  
  
*cough*  
  
"Lina-chaaaaaan that was mean!"  
  
"TELL ME!"  
  
"Sore wa… ACK" Xellos tried to speak around the small hands that were currently trying to throttle him.  
  
"TELL ME!"  
  
"Can't… breath." Xellos gasped out in between yells.  
  
When Lina let the Mazoku go he drifted into the air and began to brush himself off. Finishing up he grinned towards the glaring sorceress and chimera.  
  
"Well, a copy doesn't have the original's soul, you however do have the previous Lina Inverse's soul and as for the why well…" He paused and wiggled one finger in front of his face and winked at Lina. "Sore wa himitsu desu!"  
  
Then he disappeared.  
  
"How did he do that?" Lina turned to Zelgadis who replied dryly, "He's Mazoku."  
  
Lina narrowed her eyes. "What is 'Mazoku?'"  
  
Zelgadis stared at Lina in astonishment. "You don't know what a Mazoku is?"  
  
Lina shook her head as she sat back down, everyone was watching her and it was making her slightly edgy. "I told you, I don't remember much."  
  
Zelgadis eyes narrowed slightly. He turned and whispered something to Amelia who nodded in reply, then got up and approached the redhead. "Lina-san, this will hurt a little, but you will regain most of the information you lost. I'm afraid it won't restore your memories though."  
  
Lina cocked her head to the right as she looked at the woman with the slightly familiar features, and then nodded.  
  
Amelia began to chant quietly under her breath and her hands began to glow with a quiet light.   
  
Images and concepts of many things began to fill Lina's mind, the facts of the Flare Dragon and Ruby-Eye, the races they had spawned, and more and more facts began to flood her brain, it was like a slowly building pressure in her head.   
  
She gasped as the feeling of discomfort changed into pain as the images and facts went from a trickle too a torrent.  
  
A flash of gold filled her vision. Things that should not be seen were seen.  
  
Lina shuddered once as Amelia finished and her eyes rolled back and she fell down into a slump.  
  
"Put her in my room." Xellos said from the darkness before once again vanishing, leaving Zelgadis cursing over jumping slightly at the trickster priests reappearance.  
  
"What should we do?" Sylpiel asked from his side, she was checking on Lina's so-called reincarnation.   
  
"I'm going to put her in Xellos's room, if he wanted to harm her he could do it at any time." Zelgadis pinched his nose in irritation; he could feel a headache coming on.  
  
Sighing he bent down and swept the unconscious girl into his arms dispassionately carrying her upstairs, the rest of the gang slowly followed, pausing at Xellos's reserved room's door and waiting until he had set the girl on the bed and came back out. Wordlessly they looked at each other and then went back downstairs.  
  
****  
  
"Any idea of what we are going to do?" Sylphiel asked.  
  
"Why don't one of us talk her in for a while and show her around." Amelia suggested.  
  
"Didn't Lina die?" Gourry looked puzzled.  
  
"Yes, Gourry dear, Xellos brought her back though."  
  
"Oh! That's great! I really missed her, even though she hit me all the time!" Gourry smiled brightly.  
  
The rest of the group laughed at that, even Zelgadis had a slight smile on his face.  
  
"I'll take her with me on the trip back to Sailoon. There are still plenty of bandits along the route and we can show them the true meaning of Justice."  
  
Zelgadis smiled at that, Amelia had changed upon being crowned; becoming someone to be respected, but she still had the same lust for Justice and Peace through her father. Though the Justice speeches had gone down in quantity over the years.  
  
"Will she remember all her spells Amelia-san?"   
  
Amelia nodded. "The Spell of Remembrance recalls all facts learned in a persons lifetime." She smiled. "I learned it on one of our Quests for Zelgadis's cure."  
  
Zelgadis grumbled something to effect that at least that damn trap of an abandoned shrine was good for something.  
  
Gourry smiled. "Gosh, I wish I could join you sometime but keeping the bandits as far away as possible from here is hard work."  
  
Gourry wasn't much for administrative work; he left that in the hands of his wife. He handled the defense of the kingdom, which meant right now that he had to kill bandits.  
  
Sylphiel nodded, a worried frown on her face. Gourry, usually unperceptive to other's moods noticed it right away. "Something the matter?"  
  
Sylphiel shook her head. "No, I was just thinking, this Lina doesn't have any experience fighting, she might need help in relearning her skills."  
  
"Oh I won't worry about that, I'll take care of Lina-chan." Xellos smiled brightly, his voice startling everyone. They hadn't even noticed him appearing, though they should be used to it, he did it every time he popped on by.  
  
"Now I'm even more worried Mazoku, I would trust you as far as Sylphiel could throw me."  
  
"But Sylphiel can't lift you up at all Zel, let alone throw you." Gourry said quizzically  
  
"My point exactly."   
  
"That's mean Zel-kun."  
  
"It is true though namagomi. I don't know why you persist coming here to bother us, we aren't going to fall for your tricks." Filia entered her contribution to the conversation.  
  
"Are you going to treat her nicely Xellos?" Amelia looked at the Mazoku suspiciously, all the false leads the trickster priest had led the chimera on had made the Queen downright hostile to Xellos.  
  
"Amelia, don't you trust me?"  
  
"No and I'm glad I'll be there to help her out when you bother her."  
  
Xellos pouted and began to sulk, inside though he was smiling, life had been so unexciting and dull since Lina-chan had died, which was why he had decided to resurrect her the best he could and he wasn't going to leave her side unless Jouu-Sama ordered him too. Which wasn't likely, the two main concerns Jouu-Sama had were gone twenty years ago with help by Lina-chan and that meant he would have a lot of free time.  
  
Of course with her memories only a little bit there that meant he could stir the pot even more.  
  
Xellos decided to go watch Lina-chan sleep and disappeared when everyone's attention was drawn away from him as one of Gourry's sons ran by chased by one of the local girls who was screaming obscenities at him.  
  
****  
  
Lina stirred slightly as she felt something soft press against her cheek, her eyes fluttered open to see the smiling face of the Mazoku from yesterday, who chirped a cheerful "Good morning Lina-chan" then pecked her on the lips.  
  
Lina gave a off a shriek as she jumped up off the bed and onto the floor. She then began to curse the priest in every single language possible, even some that hadn't been spoken in centuries, all the while beating him over the head with her fists and other blunt objects available to her.  
  
After splintering the last chair in the room over his head and saying some rather vile curses in the language of the Ryuuzoku she took a deep breath and paused, glaring at the still smiling priest.  
  
"It's nice to see you still love me after all this time Lina-chan. I love you too," He said as his smile widened slightly. Then Xellos pecked on her cheek before disappearing again.  
  
That caused Lina to stop glaring and start staring wide-eyed at the spot where the Mazoku had been.   
  
****  
  
AN:  
  
Whoa I actually continued one of my stories for Slayers  
  
*grins*  
  
Hope you liked it.  
  
  
  
Comments? Criticisms?   
  
Flames to feed my pet Mazoku?   
  
He especially enjoys the rage induced rants at people who hate to see things that go against their beliefs. Especially fanfiction fanatics, their holy rage is every so tasty.  
  
Email me at Redaeth@hotmail.com 


End file.
